HyperX Cloud MIX

Written by John Yan on 10/31/2018 for MOB   PC   PS4   SWI   XONE  

HyperX hasn’t dabbled in the Bluetooth area for headsets before but that changes with the HyperX Cloud MIX. Designed to be a multi-functional headset, the Cloud MIX was made to be both a traditional wired headset and have the ability to be your cans on the go. So, how well do they work?

The HyperX Cloud MIX features two 40mm drivers that deliver Hi-Res certified audio that ranges from 10Hz up to 40,000Hz, which is far above what the company’s other headsets cn achieve. Their aim is to deliver a wide range of clear sound, designed to appeal to the audiophiles.

Before we get into how it sounds, let’s get to how it looks and feels. Right off the bat, I was surprised at how light they felt based on the way they looked. I was really thinking they were going to be a lot heavier, but picking them up out of the box, I was pleasantly surprised at the weight of the MIX. They are 265 grams to be exact.

The headstrap consists of a very generous amount of memory foam on top to help with making the set comfortable to wear for long periods of time. The ear cups feature memory foam as well and lined with a soft leatherette. As with other leatherette products, they can sometimes get a little warm when wearing long periods of time. I didn’t find them nearly as warm as others when I wore them for more than a few hours, but again this can also be dependent on the temperature around you as well. As far as the letherette is concerned, they are soft to the touch, but time will tell on how long they last before they start flaking like some of my other headsets made of similar material.

The build of the headset makes the Cloud Mix feel very durable. Each ear cup is attached to the headstrap via a solid piece of aluminum. I tried bending them and I was using some pretty good force before I felt that it would give. So, structurally, they should stand up pretty well over time.

I was disappointed that the design doesn’t allow for the ear cups to rotate. They tilt, but the rigid design doesn’t allow for any other movement. You can slide the ear cups to expand the size for larger heads, but there’s only a very, very tiny amount of rotation for the Cloud Mix.

Now the Cloud Mix does sit on top of the ear rather than over it, but I found the memory foam to be soft enough where I wasn’t bothered by them with long periods of usage. It maybe because the weather is cool right now, but I never felt my ears get overheated from sitting on top of them. I can understand HyperX making the set a little smaller for mobile usage so as the ear cups don’t look abnormally large compared to most on the go headsets, but for those wanting an over the ear design, you’ll have to look someplace else.

On the left cup are the connectors for the wires, mic, an internal mic, and an action button. The button can be used to answer calls when talking on the phone or controlling music. A single tap will pause or play your song. Double tap to skip to the next song or triple tap to go back a song. It does take a little practice to find the button and you can only slightly feel the edges of the button as it sits flush with the exterior, but it does its job.

Having a built in mic is a nice touch by HyperX since the Cloud Mix is touted to be both an in home and traveling headset, having the ability to talk without having a boom mic attached when on the go makes the setup a lot more compact. From what my friends told me, my voice sounded OK with the built in mic, but when on a chat program such as Discord or Teamspeak, the boom mic makes more sense and performs a lot better. As you can expect, your voice will be a little more muted using the built in mic over the boom mic.

On the right ear cup sits the volume buttons, multi purpose button, and the micro-USB charge port. I wish HyperX went with a USB-C connector instead as that’s the future, but it is what it is and I’m sure people still have plenty of micro-USB cables around. The two volume buttons have a nice raised plus or minus so you can tactically find them easily. The power button sits flush, just like the action button, so you shouldn’t press that button accidently.

As I mentioned earlier, each cup houses a 40mm drivers that deliver solid sound. Watching a few movies like Antman vs the Wasp, Lord of the Rings, and Avengers Infinity War to name a few as well as playing games such as Fallout 4, Call of Duty, and Street Fighter V at home connected to my computer via the included braided cable, I found that the HyperX Cloud Mix offers very good highs and mids with an OK bass. For gaming, this might disappoint people, but I didn’t find the bass to be as pronounce as other headsets in my collection.

The thing the Cloud Mix can do is be loud and clear. I mean they can get really loud. In fact, I didn’t feel comfortable increasing the volume past the 75% mark on my computer. Even at the upper echelon of loudness, the Cloud Mix does a great job without distortion.

Using the boom mic, my friends told me my voice was really loud and clear, which is good. Since the mic has a flexible arm, you can easily move it out of the way if need be. Muting is accomplished by the inline control, which also houses a volume dial.

So let’s talk about the other equation of the Cloud Mix and that’s the Bluetooth ability. The Cloud Mix sports a Bluetooth 4.2 connection giving you range of 35 feet and when paired to my Samsung Galaxy Note 8, provided the same good sound as when plugged in via wired to my computer. There’s no AptX compatibility, but music sounded good, just like movies and games. It’s not as good as wired, but it’s still pretty darn good. It was also able to go through a few walls before losing connection.

Something disappointing is that you can only pair to one device at a time. I have a few cheap headphones that can do multiple devices, but the Cloud Mix’s limitation of one device at its price point is disappointing. Also, I would’ve liked to have seen it use Bluetooth 5.0.

Also a slight disappointment is the design does allow for some sound leakage. This isn’t as big of a deal as when you’re home on your computer, but out in public where you want to maybe be engrossed in your music, this can pop up as a problem. There’s no noise cancellation and at $200, there are headphones out there that offer some sort of noise cancellation at this price point.

Latency is pretty good and I was only able to see it when paying some attention. I still wouldn’t use it when playing games in Bluetooth mode, but it's great for watching videos.

You should get around 20 hours of usage before a charge is depleted. That’s not too bad and should last you through most long trips until you can plug in. When turning on the headset, you’ll get a nice audio notification of how much battery left you have in terms of percentages, so you can roughly translate that to how many hours of playtime you have left.

Plugging in the wire will automatically turn off the headset so if you decide to come home and go straight to your computer, you don’t have to think about holding the power button to power it down as it’s automatically done for you.

Speaking of plugging in via wire, I wish there was also a multi-purpose button on the inline control. Because the Cloud Mix can’t turn on when plugged in, I wasn’t able to control my phone’s music when I connected the headset with a wire rather than Bluetooth. That left me with having to use my phone or my smartwatch to change songs or pause the playback.

For $200, the HyperX Cloud Mix is a good headset for those wanting one just for gaming and being on the go. Design wise, they won’t stand out in the crowd or feel out of place when in public while being comfortable and solidly built. There are a few things I felt were a missed opportunity with this headset and it is a little expensive for what it offers, but there are some features here that are really good and the bottom line, the sound is pretty darn good.